http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/obamas-modern-predicament/?ref=opinion
Obviously they only refer to me by lesser known nicknames "the internet" and "the left", but you know they're really rocked by my constant criticisms of the administration.
I'm also amused to note that random yahoos on the internet are now considered equal to Goldman Sachs and Lockheed Martin. Yes, the internet has changed the information balance somewhat, and yes that does scare the shit out people like the NYT commentariat, but lets get real here. When the next President appoints several illiterate Teabagger bloggers to essentially run the Treasury, then perhaps I'll admit the NYT isn't hyperventilating because zomg people on the internet = mob rule.
I call concern trolling. Mainly because I can't swallow the notion that he actually believes what he's writing.
He does run bloggingheads.tv, a site where vapid liberals and insane conservatives attempt to fit everything in the world into their duopoly.
I am uncomfortable with the idea that people really believe internet rants are "precision political weaponry". If people start believing it, it'll become true.
:scared:
Quote from: Cain on February 06, 2010, 09:56:05 PM
When the next President appoints several illiterate Teabagger bloggers to essentially run the Treasury, then perhaps I'll admit the NYT isn't hyperventilating because zomg people on the internet = mob rule.
Should the next President be Palin, I have a feeling that this may be a very real possibility.
Quote from: Remington on February 07, 2010, 04:38:53 AM
Quote from: Cain on February 06, 2010, 09:56:05 PM
When the next President appoints several illiterate Teabagger bloggers to essentially run the Treasury, then perhaps I'll admit the NYT isn't hyperventilating because zomg people on the internet = mob rule.
Should the next President be Palin, I have a feeling that this may be a very real possibility.
She won't be running in the next cycle, or she wouldn't have taken the job at Fox.
ETA: Imo
No, no. That just means she has realized where the real power lies.
Palin just sank the Tea Party.
http://feeds.salon.com/~r/salon/greenwald/~3/A7m0zX-m0ZQ/index.html
QuoteThe Nashville Post's A.C. Kleinheider, who covered the Tea Party convention for that paper, says Sarah Palin killed the tea party movement ("The tea party movement is dead. The one I was familiar with anyway. Judson Phillips held it down and Sarah Palin drove a stake right through its heart live last night on C-Span in front of an unsuspecting audience"). He also observes that "Sarah Palin didn't give a tea party speech last night. She gave a partisan Republican address"; he asks: "what was [Palin] doing justifying and perpetuating the foreign policy of George Bush at a tea party convention?"; and says that what began as "an authentic protest movement" -- "of ragtag and unorganized libertarians, independents and conservatives [that] was something new and unique" -- has now been completely annexed by Palin and her GOP operative-controllers who want a restoration of the standard Bush/Cheney agenda.
I think it was clear from the start that the populist and anti-Beltway rage fueling these gatherings was being diverted (absurdly) into standard Republican dogma, by the same party that ran the country with virtually no restraints for the last decade. And a large faction of this movement from the beginning was driven by the same ugly nationalism, Christian fanaticism, and Limbaughian hatreds that have long shaped the American GOP Right. There's a reason why the Bush-revering Fox News embraced it from the beginning. But whatever else is true -- whatever authentic elements once existed here -- it is now nothing more than a vehicle for rejuvenating the standard GOP, draped with even more neoconservative extremism and religious fervor than drove it for the last ten years. That's why Sarah Palin is their most beloved leader.
Also I would expect President Palin, if that were to ever happen, to put either other Goldman Sachs executives into the Treasury, or JP Morgan guys and gals, or peeps from Merrill Lynch. Or peeps connected with the oil industry. Hey, elections are expensive, even against political cripples like Obama.
Dammit, now I really need to find copies of the tea party con vids. :argh!:
Quote from: Cain on February 07, 2010, 07:46:35 PM
Palin just sank the Tea Party.
http://feeds.salon.com/~r/salon/greenwald/~3/A7m0zX-m0ZQ/index.html
QuoteThe Nashville Post's A.C. Kleinheider, who covered the Tea Party convention for that paper, says Sarah Palin killed the tea party movement ("The tea party movement is dead. The one I was familiar with anyway. Judson Phillips held it down and Sarah Palin drove a stake right through its heart live last night on C-Span in front of an unsuspecting audience"). He also observes that "Sarah Palin didn't give a tea party speech last night. She gave a partisan Republican address"; he asks: "what was [Palin] doing justifying and perpetuating the foreign policy of George Bush at a tea party convention?"; and says that what began as "an authentic protest movement" -- "of ragtag and unorganized libertarians, independents and conservatives [that] was something new and unique" -- has now been completely annexed by Palin and her GOP operative-controllers who want a restoration of the standard Bush/Cheney agenda.
I think it was clear from the start that the populist and anti-Beltway rage fueling these gatherings was being diverted (absurdly) into standard Republican dogma, by the same party that ran the country with virtually no restraints for the last decade. And a large faction of this movement from the beginning was driven by the same ugly nationalism, Christian fanaticism, and Limbaughian hatreds that have long shaped the American GOP Right. There's a reason why the Bush-revering Fox News embraced it from the beginning. But whatever else is true -- whatever authentic elements once existed here -- it is now nothing more than a vehicle for rejuvenating the standard GOP, draped with even more neoconservative extremism and religious fervor than drove it for the last ten years. That's why Sarah Palin is their most beloved leader.
Also I would expect President Palin, if that were to ever happen, to put either other Goldman Sachs executives into the Treasury, or JP Morgan guys and gals, or peeps from Merrill Lynch. Or peeps connected with the oil industry. Hey, elections are expensive, even against political cripples like Obama.
Didn't someone call this?
Was it you Cain?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7gVp3diPbI The Sarah Palin speech
If the internet really had any effect on elections then Ron Paul would be president right now.
Eh... I think you've overestimating Ron Paul, even on the internet.
I liken him to a modern Ross Perot in terms of likeliness of election.
Quote from: Requia ☣ on February 07, 2010, 10:45:01 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7gVp3diPbI The Sarah Palin speech
Holy shit, an hour long?
TL,DC
I haven't found this in the videos yet, but:
Quote
The opening-night speaker at first ever National Tea Party Convention ripped into President Obama, Sen. John McCain and "the cult of multiculturalism," asserting that Obama was elected because "we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country."
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/tea-party-fireworks-speaker-tom-tancredo-rips-mccain/story?id=9751718
:lulz: :lulz: :lulz: :horrormirth:
Everyone says it was standard Neocon boilerplate nonsense, with a sprinkle of religious fundamentalism.
Tancredo has always been on the wingnut fringe of the GOP as well.
Rumckle, I did think that the presence of Palin and many Movement advocates would eventually kill the Tea Party, but my suspicion was that it would happen closer to election time, to avoid splitting the vote for President. I didn't expect anything to happen this quickly.
As far as I can see, the Tea Partiers have three possible futures to choose from:
- They chuck Palin et al, the GOP and Dems keep discrediting themselves, they become a real third party
- The GOP keep infiltrating and co-opting its membership, causing massive internal fights and eventual dissolution into splinter groups (current favourite)
- They remain a political movement, distance themselves from the Republicans, and act as a spanner in the political system.
If I could sign up to any major tea party forum, I'd be giving them advice on the third, but my limey ass is not welcome, apparently.
Cain,
why can't you go on their forums via proxy? how are they preventing you from joining?
also, what do you think about John Robbs view on the TeaParty folks as presented in his recent post?
The tea party group is potentially useful in that it can potentially really throw a wrench into anything on the right wing end. Truthers might be more useful were they not already considered a bit nutty by all the 'legitimate' party lines, since the truthers consist of people from both the left and the right -- pretty much anyone who doesn't buy the bush party line on 9/11 falls under that very wide and bullethole-ridden umbrella.
Quote from: Iptuous on February 08, 2010, 02:09:50 PM
Cain,
why can't you go on their forums via proxy? how are they preventing you from joining?
also, what do you think about John Robbs view on the TeaParty folks as presented in his recent post?
Well, I tried with the Ning.com social networking site they have, and they rejected me. I mean, I suppose I could create another account and proxy in or something, but with everything else Im doing it just seems like too much effort.
I think he overestimates the grassroot aspect of the movement, since it is at least in part funded by the likes of FreedomWorks and the rest, it would be better to consider it a hybrid between that and a more established structure that Movement members like Palin, Bachmann, Tancredo et al are trying to pull off.
That said, he is dead on about the potential for political systems disruption and open source political warfare. Given both GOP and Dem blogs read from the same tired, stale script, any open source innovations will easily overwhelm them, at least on an information/propaganda/local issues level.
Quote from: Jason Wabash on February 08, 2010, 03:49:44 AM
If the internet really had any effect on elections then Ron Paul would be president right now.
QFT